Industrial Staffing Report: Sept. 20, 2018

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Dice parent sells oil and gas career site Rigzone

DHI Group Inc. (NYSE: DHX), which operates Dice and other job boards, transferred a majority ownership of its Rigzone business to Rigzone’s management team. DHI will retain a minority interest in the career site for oil and gas professionals.

DHI Group purchased Rigzone in 2010 in a $39 million deal with up to $16 million in earn-outs.

“The spinoff of Rigzone completes the divestiture of our nontech brands, consistent with our strategy to focus DHI on delivering state-of-the-art online recruiting solutions to technology professionals,” DHI Group CEO Art Zeile said.

DHI in May 2017 announced its intention to divest four of its nontech businesses as part of a strategy to focus on its core business, and this sale substantially completes that divestiture process.

Dice sold its Health eCareers business to Everyday Health Professional in December; transferred majority ownership of BioSpace to the division’s management on Jan. 31; sold RigLogix — the data services division of its Rigzone business — on Feb. 20; and sold Hcareers, a job site targeting the hospitality market to Virgil Holdings Inc. in May.

“We have moved aggressively to streamline our business and reduce our global footprint, including the closure or downsizing of six offices, resulting in a leaner and focused organization with the resources to invest in our three tech-focused platforms — Dice, eFinancialCareers and ClearanceJobs,” Zeile said. “There are significant synergies between these platforms that will enable us to optimize our resource allocation going forward and be much more efficient and agile in how we address the needs of our clients.”

Hedge fund TCS Capital Management LLC last month offered to buy DHI Group for $2.50 per share in cash and said it will force a proxy contest against the existing board at DHI’s 2019 annual meeting of shareholders if the company does not engage in a transaction.